Butterflies
by ButtersMuffin
Summary: Numbuh 86 isn't the happiest face at the moonbase and everyone knows it. At first glance, she just seems to be an annoying girl with a temper problem, but is that really the case? Will she ever cheer up? Read to find out.


**Butterflies**

**Description:** Numbuh 86 isn't the happiest face at the Moonbase and everyone knows it. At first glance, she just seems to be an annoying girl with a temper problem, but is that really the case? Will she ever cheer up? Read to find out.

**Rating:** T.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the show Codename: Kids Next Door (no matter how much I wish I did). The show and it's characters are property of the almighty Tom Warburton. Worship him.

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This is just a little one-shot a decided to do. I guess the idea came from a picture that I draw a few months ago. (anyone who's seen my Deviant Art page will know what I'm talking about by the end)

I'm still not 100 happy with the story because it starts to turn into cheese-on-toast at the end. Oh, well. I hope it's okay as it is.

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It was mid-April and it was a busy day in the Moonbase. There was a lot of birthdays in this particular month, that meant a lot of over-aged Kids Next Door operatives, and that meant a lot of decommissioning, and _that _meant a lot of paperwork for Numbuh 86.

The red-head was sitting at her desk in her small office. She read through the files drowsily, half asleep. This was due to her lack of rest. Her mind had been in a whirl lately.

First off there was the work. Most of the over-aged operatives have been getting away before decommissioning and Fanny usually got the blame for it. She had been threatened by many, many 13-year-olds and had been called very mean names. That taunting led to a mild case of depression. That's right, depression. She was being picked on by many other operatives. Sure, it was true that she deserved it for being so mean and snappy to them in the first place, but some of the things they said deeply hurt her. She had almost no friends at all, and her brothers bullied her like there was no tomorrow.

But, all around, Fanny was a tough kid. She tried her damnest to hide her thoughts and feelings of hurt and sadness, and covered them up with anger and aggression. It might not have been helping none, but it was much better than the truth.

"Codename: Numbuh 849. Real Name: Ben Holmes," she read aloud in her thick Irish accent, "Sector: H. Birthday: February 28th." She yawned as she thought about she to do with this particular operative. "Hmm... Numbuh 849 is a crafty little bugger. I better get extra backup," she murmured to herself before ticking a few boxes.

_Knock. Knock._

The girl jumped slightly when she heard the sound of the door knocking. She glared at it loathingly. Why couldn't whoever it was leave her alone? Didn't they know that she was in a worse mood than usual?

She tried to ignore it. Maybe the person was smart enough to take a hint and leave.

_Knock. Knock._

Obviously not.

Fanny groaned in annoyance, already deciding that this person was just another stupid boy coming in to inform her about some crap that she didn't really care about. "Come in," she yelled. Her eyes shot back down at the paper she was previously reading before the person even entered. She was so ticked off at that moment that she didn't even want to _look_ at the whoever dared to come into her office while she was in this kind of mood.

She heard the door creak and footsteps slowly came closer to her. "Numbuh 86," a male voice said. Fanny's paper became shadowed, making it harder to read. She could now tell the person was standing right over her.

Fanny peered down in front of her. She instantly saw black boots. She continued to look up, taking in all the features. Brown pants tucked into the boots, turquoise shirt, yellow gloves, and blond hair that would only belong to...

"_Numbuh 35_," she spat. She said his name like it was some kind of unholy curse word. Oh, how Francine loathed him. In fact, she hated every male that graced the Earth, and, in this case, the Moon included.

It was always a problem, ya see. It used to be annoying to everyone else but it seems that now everyone had excepted it as an unfortunate fact of life, like having to grow up, or the existence of adults... Okay, so maybe people didn't exactly respect the fact that they had to grow up or that they had to live in a world with adults. But either way, Francine Fulbright hated boys and there was nothing _anyone_ could do about it.

"That's me," Numbuh 35 muttered, all the time glaring at her. Numbuh 35 hated having to deal with Numbuh 86. There was only one word that would fit her perfectly, but that was the kind of word you'd get grounded for saying in front of your parents, a "bad word". But, in almost everyone's eyes, there was no other way to describe her. So it was said freely throughout the Kids Next Door organization. Fanny was a bitch. A nasty, inconsiderate bitch. Pure and simple.

"What do ye want?" Fanny asked, her head was resting in her hands as she looked at him. She blinked sleepily.

"I brought you more paper-work." the room vibrated as a heavy pile of files were dropped onto Fanny's desk.

"Ugh." she looked at the pile of files and let out an exaggerated sigh. She looked back up at the blond boy before her. Her annoyance was as noticeable as an atomic twister. "Any'hing else?"

She shouldn't have asked.

"Yeah, actually," Numbuh 35 exclaimed. "Numbuh 362 wants to see you in her office."

Fanny banged her head on the table in an 'i-don't-want-to-go-so-get-the-hell-out-of-my-office-and-leave-me-alone' manner. "Now?"

He cleared his throat and answered her question for her, "Now." The blond boy let a small chuckle escape. He knew it was mean of him, but he couldn't help but laugh. It 'serves her right, after-all. But, then again, there were times when he did admit to himself that he had some sympathy for the unfortunate girl.

Fanny let out another load sigh and stood. "What for?"

"_I_ don't know." Numbuh 35 replied.

She sighed. Three-Sixty-Two was one of the last people she wanted to see at the moment. Hearing the girl explain to her about all the complaints she's been getting would not make her day any better.

There was silence. Thirty-Five coughed intentionally to break it. "Well, you better go now. Numbuh 362 sounded pretty impatient."

Fanny growled. "Fine." she pushed Numbuh 35 out of the way and walked out of her office, more pissed off than ever.

Numbuh 86 sighed softly as she stood outside Numbuh 362's door. She'd always feel embarrassed around Numbuh 362. People could argue that it was because the blond girl out-ranked her and she didn't want to make an arse of herself. Unfortunately for her, however, she always did. Whether it was mistaking her for a fugitive operative, or not following orders correctly, or even inviting her to every single slumber party she had only for her to not turn up, she always seemed to embarrass herself in some way.

But, in fact, the problem was a lot more complicated than that. It might not have sounded that complicated, but it sure was for poor Fanny.

The truth was that, recently, Fanny had been thinking of Numbuh 362 rather differently to other operatives. It started off as an admiration but it actually, over time, developed into a crush. That's right, Numbuh 86 had a crush on another operative. A _girl_ operative. And hell would freeze over before she'd admit it out loud.

She knew that she never liked boys, hell, she detested them. But she'd always figured that eventually she would end up liking a boy some day. She thought she would find a boy who was _different_ to other boys. A boy who wasn't as stupid, or gross as other boys. A boy who wasn't, well, boy-like. She never found one.

And that's when denial kicked in. She forever tried to convince herself into liking other boys. Like, Numbuh 4, for example. She kept telling herself that to be normal she'd have to develop a "crush" on a member of the opposite sex. She ordered herself to like Wallabee Beatles so many times that she even started to believe that she did.

But she was only kidding herself, obviously.

The red-head sighed for what felt like millionth time that day before she decided to knock of the door.

Almost immediately, Fanny could hear the beautiful angel-like voice answer, "Come in."

Numbuh 86 could now feel an un-easy sensation in her stomach. It was like butterflies flying around, waiting to be free. She gulped and stepped inside.

Numbuh 362's office had a much more of a nicer atmosphere about it. It was certainly a lot tidier than Eighty-Six's, brighter too. All of her paper-work was placed in a neat pile on her desk. She even had a few colorful Rainbow Monkey stickers on her laptop, desk and such.

The brown-eyed angel, herself, was seated. He back was straight and her hands were placed on her desk, her slender fingers laced neatly together. She greeted Fanny with a bright, toothy smile, which made her guest's cheeks turn a light shade of pink.

"You finally decided to come. I asked for you ages ago."

Eighty-Six cursed under her breath, it was directed at Numbuh 35. He must have been slacking off again.

Fanny shut the door behind her. "W-well, what did ye want to talk to me about?" Her voice was quivering. This couldn't be good...

"I've noticed that you've been falling behind on your work lately," Three-Sixty-Two explained.

Fanny looked at her blankly. "That's what ye wanted to tell me?"

"Well, no. It's not just that," Numbuh 362 paused to clear her throat. "Well, me and a few other people have been noticing that you haven't been yourself lately."

"How do ye mean?" Fanny asked, although, obviously, she already knew the answer.

Three-Sixty-Two counted on her fingers as she spoke. "Well, the obvious one is that you've been falling behind on your work, you can never be bothered to do anything any more, you're constantly sleepy, you never do anything more than glare at people and you never, _ever_ smile."

"I never really smiled before, either," the Irish girl muttered, rolling her eyes.

"You really should, Fanny," Numbuh 362 said sympathetically. "It's not right for children to not smile."

Fanny shuddered at the sound of her name, she hated it so much. "There's nothin' to smile about."

"Well, the truth is: I'm worried about you, Eighty-Six. Quite a lot of people are." she looked up at Fanny, her brown eyes shone with concern.

Fanny could have melted on the spot. Those eyes. Those damn chocolate-brown eyes. They made the butterflies inside her stomach flutter insanely. She felt like she was gonna puke, or cry, or something. "N-no, ye don't. Ye don't c-care about me. No one cares about m-me." Her voice was shaking even more. She bit her bottom lip, knowing she could cry at any given minute.

"I do, Fanny. I'm really concerned." she walked over to her and put her hand on her shoulder.

Numbuh 86's emotions were running wild. She could barely hold her tears in any longer. But _no-one_ was allowed to see Numbuh 86 cry. Especially _Three-Sixty-Two_.

So, naturally, she approached this situation the way she normally should.

"Stop callin' me that! My name is Numbuh 86!" her yell made Numbuh 362 jump back. It didn't make Eighty-Six stop, though, "I'm a tough fighter. I don't care what anyone else thinks. I'm one of the highest ranked Kids Next Door operatives!"

Three-Sixty-Two glared at Numbuh 86. But her expression softened when she saw a stray tear run down Fanny's face.

"You can keep hiding behind your tough image forever, Eighty-Six. But deep down you're the scared little girl wanting a friend, someone to care about, someone to love."

The emotions were literally pouring out of Numbuh 86. She couldn't hold back the tears any longer. "Been there, done that," she muttered. She didn't mean for Numbuh 362 to actually hear what she said, but unfortunately, she did.

"What do you mean?" Three-Sixty-Two asked, she was genuinely confused.

Fanny didn't look at her. "Ye know what I mean. I've tried to be yer friend. I've invited ye to every freakin' slumber party I've ever had, and ye don't come. I practically worshiped the ground ye walked on and ye threw it in my face."

Numbuh 362 looked at her feet in shame.

"I can explain that... but I can't."

Fanny looked at her, tears were now streaming now her cheeks. "What do ye mean "I can't"?"

"I just can't. There's no way to explain it." her cheeks were now a deep shade of pink.

"How it can't be that hard to say: "I hate yer guts. Leave me alone"?"

It hurt Numbuh 362 that Fanny would think so lowly of her. Never in a million years would Numbuh 362 say that and actually mean it. Three-Sixty-Two didn't hate Fanny.

"That's not it at all, it's almost the opposite, actually. I just- I can't tell you."

"It's not like yer in love with me or any'hing," Fanny joked. She even laughed a little. Although, deep down, she wished is was true.

Numbuh 362 was silent, tears were welling up in those brown eyes of hers. She looked up at the red-head, as if confessing her feelings. She didn't say a word, but Fanny could read her like a book.

Numbuh 86 gasped in pure shock. She could barley move at all. She had no idea what to say or do.

"Yeah." Numbuh 362's cheeks were now bright red. "If you never speak to me again, I'll understand."

"No.. it's okay I-I-," Fanny cut herself off. If Numbuh 362 returned Fanny's feelings then it couldn't be that bad for her to confess. If she didn't then Numbuh 362 would act extremely awkward around Numbuh 86, and that would annoy to hell out of her. "Well, I -... I urmmm guess... I..." she didn't say it, but the beetroot cheeks gave everything away.

"You mean..?"

Hell must have frozen over, because Fanny nodded slowly.

There was a long, awkward silence.

"I guess I better go," the red-head said when heading toward the door. Suddenly a pressure on her back almost made her lose balance. She turned around to see Three-Sixty-Two with her arms wrapped around her. She was grinning as she cuddled her tightly.

"You're still not smiling," she said.

"Yeah, so?"

"What will it take to get you to smile?"

Fanny shrugged sadly. "I dunno."

Numbuh 362 looked into Numbuh 86's beautiful emerald eyes in concern. The Irish girl blushed when she realized how close their face's were.

Numbuh 362 planted a small kiss on the other girl's cheek. She then climbed off of Numbuh 86's back and sat back down at her desk, both of their faces were bright red.

"I... urr.. I think I better go now," Fanny exclaimed after a long silence. "See ya."

Numbuh 362 waved shyly. "Bye."

Eighty-Six grinned at the blond girl before leaving the room. She shut the door behind her and she headed over to her own room. She had a smile on her face, a shine in her eyes, and love in her heart.

The butterflies were finally free.

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Hah! I bet everyone was expecting 1/86! But you were all so wrong! MWAHAHAHA!

Cough Anyway, I hope you all liked it. I think this is the first 86/362 fanfic, correct me if I'm wrong though. 0o

(I just want to let everyone know that 86/362 hasn't taken 1/86's title as my favorite couple. I just, I dunno, I was feeling in a 86/362-ish mood. )

**-Sammeh-**

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